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Creators/Authors contains: "Li, Luchen"

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  1. Abstract The Tonga‐Samoa system provides a unique tectonic context to study how a cold subducting slab interacts with a hot rising mantle plume. Here we present a 3‐D high‐resolution image of the 410‐km mantle discontinuity (the410) using seismic signals excited by deep‐focus earthquakes. The410is found to be ~30 km shallower inside the Tonga slab relative to the ambient mantle and ~20 km deeper further to the northwest under Fiji Islands. The downward deflection of the410under Fiji supports the hypothesis of a plume migration around the northern edge of the Tonga slab from Samoan hot spot to under Fiji due to fast trench rollback. The 50‐km topography difference in the410between the plume and the slab corresponds to a temperature difference of ~500 ± 100 K. The Samoan plume is inferred to be 200 ± 50 K hotter than the ambient mantle and supports a thermal origin for the plume. 
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